Dolphins Squander Away Playoff Chances in Blowout Loss

Despite having another attempt to stay relevant in the AFC playoff picture, the Miami Dolphins were embarrassed for the second consecutive game, losing, 41-13, at the hands of the New England Patriots. The loss is Joe Philbin’s seventh loss in December in just three seasons as the head coach of the Dolphins.

Miami’s loss shouldn’t have been a surprise, as the Dolphins entered the game without defensive starters Koa Misi, Jelani Jenkins and Louis Delmas, and they just got back cornerbacks Cortland Finnegan and Jamar Taylor from their injuries. But the way Miami continued to shoot itself in the foot and ultimately collapsed in the second half shows that there are too many issues for a winning franchise.

Miami dominated the first half against the Patriots, totaling 282 offensive yards and limiting Tom Brady’s Patriots to just 98 yards. The scoreboard failed to reflect Miami’s solid offensive start, though, as a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown and a costly interception from Ryan Tannehill led to 14 points for New England.

The second half wasn’t as kind as it had been for so many weeks throughout 2014, as Bill Belichick came out with an entirely new game plan for both offense and defense, and it overwhelmed the Dolphins. New England didn’t waste time to exert its dominance, taking less than four minutes to travel 79 yards for a touchdown on the opening drive in the second half.

Miami never really had a chance because it was too busy making huge mistakes. On a day that Bill Lazor finally opened up the offense, something always went wrong. Tannehill delivered some excellent deep balls to his receivers, but only Mike Wallace could finish the play at the catch point.

Brian Hartline cost the Dolphins a likely 62-yard touchdown when he lost the ball in the sun. Running back Damien Williams dropped a dime from Tannehill on a wheel route, forcing the offense to settle for a field goal. The missed opportunities aren’t a new thing for the Dolphins offense, as the team ranks sixth in drop percentage in the league, according to sportingcharts.com.

Lazor also continued his struggles as the play-caller for the Dolphins. He once again gave up on the running game despite a solid first half where Miami totaled 74 yards on 18 attempts. Miami ended with 23 rushes at the end of the game and 47 passing attempts. That’s not a winning formula with a porous defense and an offense lacking competent weapons and a quarterback who isn’t named Aaron Rodgers.

On defense, Miami was "soft like Charmin" once again—to quote Kobe Bryant, per Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times (h/t B/R's Grant Hughes).

New England finished with 395 offensive yards and 6.2 yards per play average. The once-devastating pass rush has looked like a neutered cat for more than a month, and defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle hasn’t been able to scheme any type of adjustment to account for the lack of disruption.

Philbin’s late-season collapses shouldn’t have been a surprise, and the Dolphins franchise has been marred in mediocrity for the last eight seasons. With so much going wrong, there’s not one individual that deserves all of the blame, but that also gives Miami a more difficult predicament as it looks to resolve these problems after the season.

All stats used are from sports-reference.com.

Ian Wharton is a Miami Dolphins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, contributor for Optimum Scouting and analyst for eDraft. 

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